87 | Author Social Media Without Oversharing: Protect Your Privacy and Connect With Readers

Authors are expected to show up on social media, build a personal brand, and let readers see the person behind the books. But how much of your life do you need to share to connect with readers without compromising your privacy or online safety?

In this episode, Urcelia shares seven practical ways authors can create a warm, genuine social media presence without oversharing. You will learn how to decide what belongs in your public, protected, and private circles, recognize identifying details hidden in posts and photos, avoid exposing your location in real time, and create safe content categories that still allow readers to know you.

You will also learn how to audit the information already available about you online, protect your social media accounts, and set wise boundaries that help you show up with greater confidence.

Because your readers can recognize your voice, values, personality, and work without having unrestricted access to your home, family, movements, or private life.

In this episode:

• How to set social media boundaries before you post

• The difference between personal and identifying information

• Why you should delay location-based posts

• What to share when you want to keep your life private

• How to audit your existing online presence

• Practical ways to strengthen your account security

• A four-question check to use before your next post

Scripture: Proverbs 27:12 

👉 Take the free Growth Quiz™ to discover what God may be growing in your author business right now.

© 2026 Urcelia Teixeira. All rights reserved. This episode and its accompanying materials may not be reproduced, republished, transcribed, or adapted without written permission.

Transcript

© 2026 Urcelia Teixeira. All rights reserved. This episode and its accompanying materials may not be reproduced, republished, transcribed, or adapted without written permission.

Authors are told that readers want to know the person behind the books.

Show your face. Share your day. Take people behind the scenes.

Let them enter your writing room, your routines, your family life, and the moments that make you human.

Now there is value in letting readers know you.

Connection matters. Trust matters too.

But somewhere along the way, many authors are beginning to feel that building an audience requires them to turn their private life into public content.

I, for one, am very private, and this demand for sharing your life publicly creates a hard tension when you, like me, value privacy and want to protect your family or have very real concerns about online safety.

You may also wonder whether your boundaries are holding your author platform back.

You may feel pressure to share more than you want because other authors seem to post every meal, every outing, every family milestone, and every corner of their home.

But as I've come to learn, you can absolutely build a warm, recognizable author presence without giving strangers full access to your life.

So today I'm going to help you decide what to share on social media,

what to protect, and how to create social media content that still feels personal.

We will also look at a few practical safety habits that every Christian author should put in place before their next post goes live,

because authenticity can have boundaries and your readers can feel connected to you without knowing where you are, who is home with you, or what happens behind every closed door.

So settle in friend. I have a feeling you are going to get real value from this one.

This is the Anointed Scribe Podcast™.

If you're a Christian writer, whether you are starting out or want to build right from the beginning, or you've published a book or two and feel off course,

this is your home for growing your faith and building a profitable author business. God's Way. Come on in friend. It's great to have you here.

Hey, real quick, are you wondering what needs your attention most in your writing life or author business right now?

Take the Free Growth Quiz™ for a quick personalized insight into what God might be growing in your current season.

It only takes around two minutes and you'll walk away with greater clarity or on what to focus on Next.

Visit anointedscribe.com/quiz or use the link in the show notes.

Hey, it's your author friend, Urcelia, and welcome back to the show.

If you're new here, I'm your host and founder of Anointed Scribe. I'm also a published indie author of more than 20 Christian mystery thriller novels and it is my honor to help you grow your relationship with God with while you grow your Author business so today we are talking social media.

And today's topic is one that I personally have wrestled with, basically from when I started my author career back in 2018, and after a recent zoom meetup with a few of my author friends,

it became very clear to all of us that none of us like sharing our private lives on social media.

Yet it's being expanded, expected,

so I thought it would make for a great episode. Because personally, I value my privacy.

I also care about online safety. I want to connect with my readers and fellow authors, and I understand that people often connect with the person behind the books,

but at the same time I do not want every part of my personal life available for public consumption.

Perhaps you feel the same.

Social media advice often though, tells authors to be more open, more personal, and more visible.

That advice can help when an author page feels distant or contains one sales post after another.

But be more personal is vague advice without boundaries. It can lead you to share details that you regret later,

and it can also make you vulnerable to online attacks.

So let's start with this one principle that will guide this entire conversation for us today.

Your audience needs enough information to recognize you, trust you, and understand what matters to you. But they do not need unrestricted access to your private world and your private author life.

Readers can know your voice, your values, your sense of humor, your love of books, and the experiences that shaped your writing.

But your address,

real time movements, family details and private relationships can in actual fact remain protected.

So let's walk through some practical ways you can protect your privacy.

Stay safe online and still create the kind of genuine connection you your readers will respond to.

Number one, Decide your boundaries before you post.

The hardest time to decide whether something is private is when you are already emotional,

excited, angry, proud, or caught up in the moment.

Let's look at a few examples where you might post something when you are caught up in your emotions.

A new book publishing opportunity comes in, so you rush into sharing the news in an email, right?

Or you're excited about a family celebration, so you post the photos on Facebook and tag everyone in your family photo.

Or perhaps you are sitting in a beautiful coffee shop and you are tagging the location while you are still there.

Another example could be where you've had a difficult day so you tell your followers what happened before you've even had time to process it yourself.

See, a boundary made in advance protects you from making that decision under pressure.

So to avoid posting when you are under pressure, I recommend creating three circles for your online life.

The first is your Public Circle these are subjects you are happy to discuss with anyone. Your books, your writing process, your genre, your author journey, your values, your research and selected interests may all sit in this circle.

The second circle is your protected circle. These are personal experiences that you may share after time has passed or after removing the names, places, dates, and any details that identify another person.

For example, you may want to share the lessons learned from an experience,

but keep the full story within your trusted relationships only.

The third circle is your private circle. These are areas that will never become public. Content,

your home address,

travel plans before you leave,

children's information,

school gatherings,

private family matters, finances, medical information,

and anything another person or family member has not permitted you to share.

This might all go into this private circle.

Now. Your circles may look very different from mine. What you place in each circle is your prerogative.

The point of this exercise, though, is to choose them before you post them.

Take a sheet of paper after this episode and write those three headings down. You might want to save this episode, come back to it later.

Write them down on a piece of paper. Make three columns or three circles in the bottom. One is public,

protected and private. Those are your three circles.

Then add five examples beneath each one of those circles.

That one exercise, I promise you, will remove so much uncertainty from social media because you won't have to decide in the moment if it's something you should share or not.

You will already have a boundary in place to guide you.

Number two Learn the difference between personal and identifying information.

Many authors hear the word personal and assume they need to reveal private information.

Personal content can be warm,

honest, and memorable without revealing details that identify your home, your location, or people around you.

For example,

you can share why a scene was hard to write. You can talk about a lesson you learned after a disappointing book launch.

You can tell readers which kinds of stories first make you love books.

You can share a photo of your notebook, a stack of research books, or your desk without showing every part of the room.

You can tell a story about learning patience without naming the family member involved.

You can describe a writing routine without publishing the exact hours when you are alone at home.

You can show that you are human while keeping the identifying details out of the post.

Before publishing a photo, pause and look beyond the main subject in that image.

Check the backgrounds for letters, delivery labels, street names, car registration numbers,

school logos, house numbers,

calendars, computer screens, or even documents. Look at mirrors,

windows, and other reflective surfaces.

A photo may reveal information that you never intended to share.

Look at the details before publishing a story ask the same question. Does this reveal someone else's private information?

Does it reveal my private information?

Could a stranger use these details to work out where I am, where I live,

where I go each week, where my children go to school,

or when my home is empty?

This pause is a habit of wisdom. This is you practicing wisdom,

and it should lead to care rather than fear.

A few seconds before you publish a social media post can protect your information that is difficult to retrieve once it has spread.

Once it's out there, it is out there, right?

Number three Share the moment after you have left that moment.

Let me explain.

Real time posting can feel natural because social media asks us what's happening right now, right?

But your content does not lose its value just because you post it a couple of hours later or even a day later.

If you attend a conference, for example, or you visit a restaurant, or you go on holiday or spend the day away from home,

you can still share those experiences after it happened.

You can still tell the story, post the photographs, and connect with your audience.

The content remains useful even when it's no longer live and in the moment.

This applies to your regular movements too.

Be cautious about creating a public pattern that tells people where you are every Tuesday morning, for example, or when you collect your children,

which school you're collecting them from, or which church service you attend, where you walk, or when you work alone.

Authors often think of online safety in terms of one revealing post, but the larger picture matters so so much.

Small details shared over several months can form a clear pattern to someone with malice. When somebody puts them together, they will know your whole life story.

So try this rule instead.

Share the experience,

but remove the live location map. Remove those identifying details.

You can talk about a writing day at the library without announcing that you are there in that moment.

You can share conference photographs after returning to your accommodation or after getting back home.

You can tell readers about a holiday after you are home safely.

That small delay,

no matter the time, it could be hours, it could be days, it could be a week,

gives you room to enjoy the moment as well. You are not glued to your phone,

posing every five minutes for a photo.

You do not have to experience everything through the question of asking, how can I turn this into content? You can actually relax about it.

You are allowed to have experiences that remain yours when, while you are living them, live the moment, right? There's that balance, that author life balance. Live it out.

Number four Create safe Content Categories Privacy becomes much easier when you know what you can share Without a content plan, you open social media, see other people sharing their lives and instantly feel that that you should probably share your own life details too, right?

But a set of safe content categories that you've thought about and planned out beforehand gives you another way to remain visible.

Choose four or five categories that connect your personality with your writing, with your work,

with your author life.

One category could be your writing process. You can share on what you are working through, what surprised you in the draft, or how a story changed during revision.

Another could be your books and reading life. Talk about themes you love, characters you cannot forget,

research that fascinated you, or the emotional experience your books offer.

Maybe another could be lessons from your author journey. You can share what you learned from a launch,

a wrong decision maybe, or a season of doubt you are going through or a moment of progress without sharing every private detail behind it. You don't have to share your heartaches.

You may want to include a selected interest that gives readers a glimpse of you, like gardening or cooking or walking or horse riding or history or science or pets or stationery.

Anything that can create a connection if they feel natural to you.

And because you are a Christian writer, you may share faith as it relates to your writing life. You can include a scripture that helped you through rejection,

or a prayer you returned to before writing,

or a truth that changed the way you think about your writing and your work.

Your categories give people a clear sense of who you are.

They also give you a generous supply of content without opening your private circle.

This is an important point for your author business.

Readers do not form connection because they know the most facts about you.

They form connection because they recognize something consistent in you. They recognize your voice. They know what you care about. They recognize your morals and your values and your faith. They understand the kind of experience your books offer.

They see you return to the same values over time, and they might even relate with you.

That consistency builds familiarity, and familiarity can grow without you having to expose everything in your life.

Number five Audit the information already online.

Setting new boundaries is a strong start, but old posts may still reveal more than what you want.

Give yourself a short privacy audit this week. Search your name in the a private browser window and look at what shows up.

View your social profiles as a member of the public. Pretend you are a nobody. Pretend you are looking at your accounts for the first time.

Review your bio,

old photographs, tagged posts,

check ins and public comments and ask yourself,

what could a stranger learn about me in 10 minutes?

Could they identify your town, your home, your family members,

your regular routine, your personal email address or the places you visit often look at old posts with fresh eyes. A detail that felt harmless five years ago may no longer fit the boundaries you want today.

Review who can tag you. This is a big one and where the tags appear on your profile before you approve them.

Friends and family may post photos or location details without thinking about your author, platform or public audience,

so make sure you've toggled this setting on.

You can also speak with people close to you about your boundaries. Explain that your author work has created a wider public reach,

and ask them not to tag your location, your home or your family in photos without checking with you first.

This conversation matters because privacy is shared. You can protect your own posts and still be exposed through someone else's account.

Number six Protect your account as well as your content There is another side to online safety.

You may guard every detail you post and still lose control of the account if your login security is weak. A friend of mine just lost access to his Facebook page and he's still battling to get it back.

Use a different strong password for each social media account. Turn on Multi Factor Authentication. It is vital.

Save your recovery codes somewhere secure, away from your account itself.

Review the devices that are logged into your profiles. This is so important. You might have changed phones or sold an old iPad. Remove any device you no longer use or recognize and then turn on the alerts for those new logins where the platform offers them.

Check which outside apps have access to your social accounts. You know, there are so many scheduling tools, quiz apps, design tools and old services that may remain connected long after you've stopped using them.

Remove those connections you no longer need, do a proper audit and check them out properly.

Review your account recovery, email and telephone number as well. You might have changed them. Make sure they are current and protected.

These little tasks may not feel creative, it may feel like a time waste, but they protect your audience and they protect your body of work that you have spent years building.

They will protect your author life,

your author platform, your author business.

Losing a social media account can affect your reader relationships, your reputation and your business. You have no idea what these hackers can all do with those accounts.

So set aside 30 minutes twice a year for this.

Put it on your calendar like any other business review and follow through with it.

Number seven Let wisdom lead your visibility. Last week, in last Week's episode, episode 86, we spoke about wisdom and how to make proper decisions in your business. If you haven't listened to that yet, go back to last week's episode and listen to that.

Let wisdom lead your visibility on social media.

Proverbs 27:12 says the prudent see danger and take refuge.

But the simple keep going and pay the penalty.

This verse couldn't be more clear.

Be wise. Be on guard.

Be careful.

You can welcome readers into your author world while keeping your home,

relationships and movements outside the frame.

You can speak with honesty about hard seasons after you have processed them.

You can absolutely share the lesson that you've learned without sharing the details that belong to somebody else who was part of that lesson or that experience.

You can show your face while keeping your location private.

You can show just your hands on a keyboard. You don't even have to show your face.

And you can decide that certain parts of your life are sacred,

personal and unavailable for content.

A boundary does not make your author brand cold and impersonal.

When your boundaries are clear,

you can show up with more confidence because you know where the line is. You are less likely to post from pressure and then regret it later.

There is actually freedom in knowing what belongs online and what belongs in your real life.

So here's your practical action for this week before you leave today. Before you switch this episode off and carry on with your day, choose one action from this episode.

You can save this episode like I said before and come back to it later over the weekend when you have more time.

But choose one action from this episode.

You could write your three privacy circles.

You could remove location details from your older posts.

You can turn on multi factor authentication. You could review people and apps connected to your social media accounts.

You could choose five safe content categories and plan one post in each of those categories.

You can pick the action that gives you the greatest sense of relief and complete it this week.

Then, before your next post,

use this four question check that I'm about to share with you.

Ask yourself these four questions. Number one Is this mine to share? Can I share this? Is this mine?

Does it reveal where I am or where I live?

Number three does it expose someone who did not choose a public platform?

Number four Can I share the value of this moment while protecting the private details?

Those questions will help you create content with warmth and wisdom.

And if your social media has become difficult because you are unsure what to say,

or you are afraid to be seen,

or you are just simply confused about what belongs in this season of your author life.

The Growth Quiz may help you name the area that needs attention. It takes you around two minutes and will show you what God may be growing in your author business right now.

Knowing those things that God's growing in your author business. It might be one, it might be more than one. But knowing that will help you prepare posts ahead of time and you'll have clarity with what it is that you need to post.

Can post where you're going, your direction,

everything.

So take the Growth Quiz. You'll find it@anointedscribe.com quiz. The link is also in the show Description for you friend, you do not have to choose between disappearing online and sharing more than feels wise.

Your readers can know you through the way you speak, the books you write, the values you return to, and the care you show them.

That kind of connection grows over time.

Protecting your private life is part of stewarding your author personality behind your author brand.

Protecting your account is part of stewarding your writing.

And choosing what you share with wisdom allows you to keep showing up without feeling that your audience owns access to every part of you.

So take a look at your boundaries this week.

Strengthen what needs attention,

then keep showing up in a way that feels honest, warm, and secure.

Thanks so much for listening. If today's episode helped you, I'd really be grateful if you would leave a review.

And if you'd like more practical conversations like this one, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next.

May your pen stay faithful, your roots grow deep, and every word you write bear fruit for his glory.

© 2026 Urcelia Teixeira. All rights reserved. This episode and its accompanying materials may not be reproduced, republished, transcribed, or adapted without written permission.